1. Field of the Invention:
The invention relates to a component feeding apparatus for feeding electronic components to a pick-up position by intermittently forwarding a storage tape storing the electronic components at predetermined pitches.
2. Description of the Related Art:
In a conventional component feeding apparatus, a storage tape is intermittently forwarded by predetermined pitches by using a forwarding gear corresponding to storing pitches of components in the storage tape (for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. Hei 7-283596). When changing the pitches for forwarding the storage tape, it is necessary to change a connecting position of a link for controlling a forwarding operation of the storage tape or replace mechanical elements such as the link and a forwarding gear. For example, for intermittently forwarding the storage tape of 2 mm storing pitches by 2 mm pitches, a forwarding gear having teeth, which corresponds to 2 mm forwarding pitch, is used. For intermittently forwarding the storage tape of 1 mm storing pitches by 1 mm pitch, a forwarding gear having teeth, which corresponds to 1 mm forwarding pitch, is used.
However, it is difficult and impractical to form a forwarding gear having teeth corresponding to 1 mm forwarding pitch, since the durability of such a miniature gear is low and manufacturing costs are high.